11 / A time-tracking cube and a browser-based whiteboard 11 / A time-tracking cube and a browser-based whiteboard

Hope all of you had a great weekend! A little sore from hiking, I’m back to my bottomless inbox today answering emails like a boss. This week I’m doubling down on confirming contributors for the next issue. If you have any suggestions for inspiring interviewees you’d like to see in a future issue of Offscreen (preferably not all white and male) send them through with a short pitch.

I’m so glad to be able to hand over the reins of this week’s issue of the Dispatch to Narges who, as it seems, spends a lot of time thinking about time management. Enjoy! ⏱

This week’s guest editor:

Narges is a Senior Product Designer and occasional Product Lead at ustwo. She's passionate about collaboration, improving ways of working, and multi-disciplinary team environments. Some of her thoughts can be found on Twitter.

Sponsor

InMyBag →

Hassle-free gadget recovery

InMyBag is a recovery service for your technology. We give you hassle-free, same-day replacement for lost, stolen or damaged devices, as well as first-class data recovery and worldwide cover. Get 15% off annual membership now with the code OFFSCREEN.

Apps

Realtime Board →

The browser-based whiteboard

I’m often required to work remotely or to work with teams where at least one of the members can’t be in the room. Realtime Board allows us to use the whiteboarding techniques we’re all familiar with even when we can’t all be stood around the same physical whiteboard.

Screenhero →

The collaborative screen-sharer

We’ve used Screenhero for a number of years for real-time remote collaboration and screen sharing. It’s perfect for pair programming when you can’t be at the same desk, or can’t be bothered to leave your own! Screenhero was bought by Slack a couple of years ago, so expect to see the best features in future Slack updates.

Pomello →

The Pomodoro-extension for Trello

An open plan office full of “creative” types offers a wealth of distractions. Sometimes, however, you just need to carve out some focussed time in your day. A year or so ago I started following the Pomodoro technique as a way to add some discipline to my day and found Pomello a great tool to help me commit to a task. Add the things you want to get done to a Trello board and Pomello will countdown a distraction free 25 minutes against the task of your choice.

Gear

TimeFlip →

The time-tracking cube

I love to measure how long things take and analyse how I spend my time. The idea of being able to quickly and intuitively start and stop a timer when I start a new activity without having to open an app on my phone or got to a specific tab in my browser and break from concentration makes this a definite future purchase!

Lumie →

The wake-up light

I spend a lot of my day, and most of my evenings, staring at a screen - whether that’s my laptop, my phone, or TV. This overdose of blue light can have a real impact on your sleep and your internal bodyclock. I love Lumie because it allows me to at least start my day the right way.

Time Timer →

The time-measuring timer

The Time Timer is a timer to time time. It sounds simple because it is simple. However, the Time Timer excels in really showing the passing of time, and how much remains. It’s the perfect visual aid for sticking to workshop schedules and keeping everyone focussed.

Perusal

Watch →

The danger of a single story

With books like Americanah and Half of a Yellow Sun, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a brilliant writer. She’s also a brilliant speaker, and this TED Talk is one of my all time favourites. Chimamanda reminds us, as designers, that we need to check our biases when it comes to people (users) and countries (backgrounds).

Read →

Eleven Reasons To Be Excited About The Future of Technology

1984 offered some fascinating predictions for the future, but it didn’t seem very fun! This article shows how the near future is actually shaping up and cites eleven different reasons to be optimistic about it.